Clemency implores JusticeOil on canvas, cm. 121x192. With ancient frame.The painting bears the signature and date in the right margin at the base of the column: "P. BATONI PINXIT / ROMAE ANNO 1765 [or 1768]".Published in the catalogue of the Zeri Photo Library, card no. 61483 (Fondo Fototeca Zeri, busta 576, fasc. 6 "Pompeo Batoni: allegories).Due to its historical-artistic importance, the work is under restriction by the Italian State.PROVENANCE:A. Flaashaar collection, Berlin (1952); Sotheby's sale, London 16 November 1955, lot 115 (as Batoni, with card by Hermann Voss); Conte Leonardo Vitetti collection, Rome; Sotheby's sale, Florence 29 September 1983, lot 236 (as Batoni); private collection, Rome.EXHIBITIONS:Rome 1959: Il Settecento a Roma, edited by G. Briganti and N. di Carpegna, p. 53, n. 42; Lucca, 1967: Pompeo Batoni, L. Belli Barsali, n. 39, fig. 39, p. 143.LITERATURE:I. Belli Barsali, Pompeo Batoni, in La Provincia di Lucca, 1964, VIII, p. 77 (as Batoni); Pompeo Batoni, catalogue of the exhibition edit by I. Belli Barsali, Lucca 1967, II ed. 1985, n. 39, pp. 114-115 (as Batoni); A. Busiri Vici, Le “donne” del Batoni, exhibition review in Lucca (1967), Roma 1968, fig. 22, p. 18 (as Batoni); L. Salerno, Pompeo Batoni, recenzione della mostra di Lucca (1967), in “Palatino”, 12, 4, 1968, p. 489 (as Batoni); I. Belli Barsali, Batoni Pompeo Gerolamo, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Roma 1970, vol. VII, p. 200; C. Brandi, Quando lo Stato dovrebbe acquistare un dipinto, in “Corriere della sera”, 25 novembre 1983 (as Batoni); A. Clark, Pompeo Batoni. A complete catalogue of his work, Londra, 1985, p. 298, n. 283 (as ateliér of Batoni); E. P. Bowron, Pompeo Batoni. A complete catalogue of his paintings, Londra 2016, vol. II, pp. 399-400 (as ateliér of Batoni).